The Inbetweeners' Blake Harrison worried about Dad's Army role

'The Inbetweeners' star Blake Harrison is set to play Private Frank Pike in the film adaptation of 'Dad's Army' but was worried that the character was too similar to high-school joker Neil

Blake Harrison was worried about playing "similar" characters in 'The Inbetweeners' and 'Dad's Army'.

The 30-year-old actor's most famous role is dim-witted teenager Neil Sutherland in the popular TV series and two 'Inbetweeners' films and will be seen as hapless Private Frank Pike in the film adaptation of the BBC World War II sitcom about the British Home Guard.

Harrison readily admits he had "reservations" about accepting the part - which was played by Ian Lavender in the TV series which ran from 1968 to 1977 - because Captain Private Pike has many similar character traits to Neil, and is constantly referred to as "stupid boy" by Walmington-on-Sea platoon leader Captain Mainwaring.

Blake shared: "I had slight reservations about playing a character that's similar to Neil, but Pike is a little softer. He's a big movie buff who wants to be living in Casablanca or Seahawk, but the reality doesn't quite live to his expectations."

Despite his doubts about appearing in 'Dad's Army' Blake accepted the part in the Oliver Parker-directed film - which is set in England in 1944 - and was determined to forge a character that wasn't identical to Lavender's.

He told Empire magazine: "It was about creating my own Private Pike, not doing a carbon copy of the original."

The Home Guard of Walmington-on-Sea find a German spy in their midst – don't panic, indeed. Faithful but strangely pointless recreation of the classic sitcom, in which fine actors like Jones, Nighy, Gambon etc only succeed in being inferior imitations of the originals. Like the characters themselves, brave but ultimately…